Simi Board Finds Deficit Much Smaller : Education: District trustees, prepared to deal with a $6-million shortfall over three years, instead find out it’s $623,000.

They came prepared to slay a lion--a deficit projected at $6 million over the next three years. But at a meeting Tuesday, Simi Valley school board members saw the deficit revealed as a $623,000 pussycat.

New financial forecasts from district staff members allowed the board to avoid such painful measures as cutting teacher salaries, increasing class sizes, or closing schools.

“I could see the board breathe a collective sigh of relief that we didn’t have to go to some of the more difficult choices,” board member Norm Walker said.

Simi Valley Unified School District officials took pains to emphasize that the original $6-million deficit was genuine, and that it had been reduced through real savings.

But the speed and relative painlessness of reducing the deficit left some trustees surprised and skeptical.

“We’ve made some paper adjustments,” Walker said, urging the board members to consider the more severe cuts that might be necessary if projected savings do not materialize. “I am not completely satisfied at this point that we’ve done the job that needs to be done.”

Other trustees, however, said they were happy to sheath their budget-cutting knifes.

“I’m delighted with it,” board member Debbie Sandland said.

Staff members told the board Tuesday that the deficit in the $75-million budget could be shrunk by $1.5 million by providing for “unanticipated unencumbered balances.” Essentially, they were including in the budget a prediction that a small percentage of the budgeted money would not be spent.

Sandland praised the move as bringing the budget “more in line with the reality of what the cost will be.” Board member Diane Collins said the new accounting practice should shelter the district from teachers’ criticism of its budgets as overly conservative. Teachers unions in the past have criticized the board for being overly cautious.

Other projected savings include reductions in salaries and benefits as the result of hiring a few new employees as part-timers. The budget also projects large savings on medical insurance and worker’s compensation, attained by reducing some reserves without reducing benefits.

A windfall of state lottery revenues also helped close the gap, said Lowell Schultze, the district’s provisional chief business official.

The deficit arose partly because 279 fewer students enrolled in the district this year, a decrease that cost the district $860,000 in state funding, Schultze said.

Board members urged district officials to fix that problem by devising a way to increase attendance at the schools.

“We need to focus on our dropouts,” Sandland said.

Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said she believed the county education department will be willing to accept a budget with a $623,000 deficit projected for the 1997-1998 school year.

The school board will discuss the budget again at a May 30 meeting. It will hear public comment at a June 12 forum, and on June 19 will vote on the budget, Schultze said. The deadline for final approval is July 1.